The Scavenge Of Hearts
by kitkat2424
Summary: my first fanfiction, please don't be too harsh. In this epic adventure Merlin and Arthur go on a quest undercover, to search for a monster who feasts on happiness and friendship; while destroying the 5 kingdoms in it's path of depression, will killing it solve all their problems or would it just create new problems?
1. The Beginning Of Something New

Chapter 1

As the sun awakens from behind the kingdoms pillars, the sun beams down throughout the whole of Camelot, stirring everybody in peaceful slumber to a slow and relaxed stretch. Merlin on the other hand groaned and looked up towards the low ceiling falling down on him, tracing the patterns formed on the white walls due to the suns reflected spectrums dancing gently in curved lines. He lifted his head slightly to view the solid wooden door standing there nearly on hinge, hoping that Gaius wouldn't come in to disturb his half-minded thought. Unfortunately the floor creaked with Gaius's familiar pace and the door opened almost instantly."Merlin,… come on boy, it's time to get up…..unless you want to risk Arthur's wrath again like yesterday"

A strained groan yet again sounded from Merlin's lips and into the hot air.

"ok, ok I'm getting up" while lifting his body from the trail of sheets he quickly threw the blanket over and puffed up his creased pillows he once slept on, viewing a wide-eyed Gaius with a straight-lined mouth, a disapproving glare appeared.

"what?"

"it looks like someone's been staying up too late"

"well someone's got to learn how to defend the prince 24/7"

"Merlin you've got to have a rest, besides Arthur doesn't want you to sleep on the job, don't you remember the last time you stayed up all night and accidentally _fell_ on the princes duvet….. The king nearly had your head"

"Gaius you knew that was a genuine accident, but to be fair though you should of seen Arthur's face when he came in, but that jug was freezing you know" Merlin had a visual flashback of the princes red, distorted face, a soft chuckle escaped his lips from the memory. gee was it worth it though he thought.

"Merlin" the usual sound of Gaius warnings "I just don't want you to get in trouble again with Arthur, you do have a destiny at stake"

"I know, I know ill be more careful next time I promise"

"I hope so now off you go you don't want to be late especially after yesterdays events"

With that Merlin tugged a calm smile on his face and exited the door picking up a piece of white bread Gaius left for him on the table.

Walking down each marbled step, Merlin recalled all of the spells he recited last night. Genuinely he thought he massively improved from what he usually was at, he could now make water move instantly with only one word shaped into any design or pattern he wished to dismay, he could slow down time just using his eyes flickering and magnifying into a single millimetre of detail, he could even and more importantly begin to trust his sense of direction if he ever got lost, helped by using his crimson neckerchief to cover up his eyes, spinning around a few times, and then trying to guess which direction his wooden door was at. even though he did all of this under 10 hours it came as a consequence due to this mornings struggle to get up, that was definitely the last time he was ever going to stay up to go over his hard covered book of spells…. Unless Arthur found out a way to kill himself under 12 hours… yes that would probably be the only excuse. Without realising going down the staircase, across the court yard and up a couple of flights of concrete planks he was already arriving down towards the corridor where Arthur pendragons chamber lied. Entering in the dark, red shifted room, Merlin moved across to Arthur's near-pleated curtain and opened them up with a quick swishing sound.

"Rise and shine dollop head" Arthur stirred and then laid his half-opened eyes onto Merlin, his strange cheery smile opened up like the fresh morning wind, yet Merlins face composure led Arthur to believe that how anyone can be this happy as soon as the sun rises, it's a mystery to him, even though his servants smile was oddly infectious towards him, instead he took out his frustration onto Merlin about how oddly wonderful he was by making a crinkled up glare at him.

"How the hell can you be this happy right at the crack of dawn?" Arthur replied while stretching his arms out yawning.

"Don't know just am I suppose…why? Isn't that normal?"

"Your probably one of the most maddest people I have ever laid eyes on you know Merlin"

"Thanks, I wouldn't keep crinkling your face if I was you… that's how you get winkles"

As soon as Merlin said that Arthur jumped out of his bed like he had an electric shock and went straight for the mirror, pulling his face at different angles to make sure the current effects wouldn't last, he sighed in relief giving Merlin an opportunity for a small smile to appear on his face moving his face downwards. phew he thought, Guinevere has had enough of an excuse to wait for him not alone to put up with future winkles which he was bound to get when years to come of looking after the kingdom comes.

"wow, speedy. that was quicker than gwaine running towards the tavern"

"oh shut up Merlin" and with that Merlin began to fetch the princes clothes for the day and carefully laid them out in perfect order on the table along with his black, leathered belt twisted above Arthur's oak handle belonging to his sword.

While helping Arthur out into his duty clothes, Merlin wondered if there was a spell to give his master the knowledge about how to put his trousers on at the least without his servants help, hmm that would be a risk he was willing to take but when Arthur looked back at him and saw the smile reappear again he couldn't resist to ask.

"What are you smiling about ?"

"Nothing, gee Arthur why are you so paranoid about what people think?" re-shooting this type of question startled the prince.

"I don't….why do you think that?"

"I don't know maybe it's something to do with the fact that you keep asking me why I'm doing simple expressions and relating it back to you in some way…"

"Be quiet Merlin, I'm not paranoid, at least I can walk across a room without tripping , falling or even mortally endangering myself!"

"I don't do tha.." and with that a quick glimpse of the past flashing back to him stole his words by the images of himself falling over anything which came to contradict his path. "ok maybe your right there".A small pause occurred while Arthur gave a small victory huff and smile. "but your still a prat". Arthur gave his eyes a full circular motion when turning around to meet merlins twinkling blue eyes.

A knock on the door echoed throughout the room, reaching Arthur's and merlins ears fully.

"Come in"

With a quick cough Arthur sounded, a blood red dragon chest appeared, as a knight of Camelot came through the door with quite a humble presence about him, his blonde hair smoothed back to his parting looking thoroughly combed through, squaring with a serious looking expression towards the prince of Camelot.

"Sir Leon"

"Sire, the king requests your presence immediately down in the great hall, I must warn you Sire it is of great emergency and also the king himself doesn't look to pleased"

And with a quick nod sir Leon walked back into the corridor and down to the great hall himself.


	2. The Understanding

Arthur, sliding his metallic sword back into his known strap walked quickly through the door, while his loyal, trustworthy servant followed every step took by him. Thinking about the near events to come, Arthur came across to think what could be at the utter most emergency which would make his father behave in such a manner; it couldn't't be about the citizens of Camelot's tax could it?, he thought he had that out with him weeks ago, people just couldn't't afford the tax he wanted, I mean 15 shillings was enough to get the average citizen of Camelot to run a mile from the town square since it made them instantly broke in seconds. Increasing the tax yet again was not going to solve anything unless the king wanted an empty kingdom to run. The prince attempted to create an image in his head about how Camelot could look so disserted and speechless at the same time, he couldn't't let that happen especially with the risks outside the kingdoms walls, Cenred was bound to make profit of it, he could see it now forcing the civilians of his kingdom to pay even higher taxes for his selfish righteousness, observing the starving women and children due to the lack of labour. No he wouldn't't allow it.

With that thought some of Camelot's guards, himself and Merlin entered through the 7 foot doors which greeted him with a slight creak due to it's lack of care.

"Arthur, we have serious matters to discuss" Uthers voice ripped through the babbling audience of guards, servants and friends, causing the whole great hall to be silenced at once.

"Father what is needed to be discussed?" coming to a stop in front of the king.

"There have been rumours around the kingdom about …..some monster who drains pure happiness from people and uses it to their advantage"

"What do you mean by using it to their advantage?" an confused tone apprised.

"I mean, it feasts on human flesh without the struggle of a man or woman due to extreme depression" Uther stated with harsh words with a slight touch of fear due to the wobble of his voice on the word….depression.

"Well we must search down this beast, and we must kill it before it kills anyone else"

"I'm sorry sire, but I'm afraid this is not as simple as that" Gaius intruded, with noble affairs and advice.

"Explain.."

"Sire it is a creature of magic, henceforth how the beast soaks up all the happy memories in your soul" Merlin standing right next to Gaius gave an involuntary shiver due to the physicians words, he hated the idea of someone being completely drained of hope and happiness, with no way to escape from inside, he could imagine it right now the coldness edging on his arms." you must have extreme caution my lord, this beast comes from the old religion therefore it must be killed with magic. No mortal weapon could even injure this monster"

"No Gaius, we will defeat this beast with the best army ever to rule this kingdom, we will make sure it will rue the day that it was ever born"

"But sire…"

"No more Gaius, Arthur you will ride out tomorrow at dawn with the knights of Camelot and slay this monster to put an end to this…speck"

"My lord, please you can not send out the knights of Camelot, it would be a suicide mission to even cease this, the Scurex hunt by searching for groups, and by their sense of smell. Sending out a small army of Camelot would increase the chances of the knights getting destroyed"

"Very well Arthur you and your servant will undergo this mission alone" before the king got up he observed his son giving a quick, yet stern, nod showing his influence and determination to wipe the Scurex off the centre of the earth. He exited the room without a second glance.

As Merlin followed Arthur out of the great hall, Gaius grabbed his ward by the elbow firmly yet gently.

"Merlin you must beware, this is not just an ordinary beast you and Arthur can go kill every other day, facing up to it will be a challenge for your magic and yourself"

"But how can I stop it from draining people from their happiness"

"You can't, that's why it was put in this world…. To feast from human flesh"

"Then how do you kill it, can't you just use the same spell which killed the griffin?"

"No Merlin it is more complicated than that, I will have to look at some of my recordings when I get back to my chambers, promise me you will come to my chambers after you've finished your work with Arthur"

"Yes I promise Gaius" and with that Gaius steadily yet speedy began to set off towards his conflicted chambers, leaving Merlin breathing heavily with wide-eyes.


	3. The Lost Map

**Yo pepes! sooo sorry for the incredibly late update!, i've just got loads of GCSE exams to revise for so i haven't really had time to write loads of chapters. Hope you enjoy the story so far, so please review! i'm desperae for your comments and the next chapter will probably be published around about June/July so hold on! **

**FIYiNgPiGIEtS- Thankyou for reviewing, much appreciated! Hope you enjoy this chapter  
Translations are at the bottom so read and enjoy! :)**

Merlin paced up the stairs quickly to catch up with his master, seeing how the stress emphasised his determination to prove himself to his father and to destroy this Scurex completely off the 5 kingdoms. "Is there anything you want me to do sire?" Arthur was pulling out his desk draw, continuing to search for the lost map him and Merlin were trying to find earlier.

"Yes, you could try to find my map for me…..um Merlin"

"Yes sire"

"Don't call me sire."

"Yes si…. I mean yes Arthur"

"That's better, I've got enough distractions as it is without you adding to them" with a small smile Arthur seated himself behind the desk, beginning to plan for his journey ahead, a quill and a piece of parchment seemed a good way to start. As Arthur was steadying himself Merlin slowly glanced around the room, hoping to find the couple of well-known faded lines somewhere beneath a book or a shelf; he searched under the kings bed, checked all of the kings pockets from his recent journey to the perilous lands, went down to the stables to check if he hadn't left it in one of the horses belts he had once rode yesterday (without, surprisingly, tripping over) and then checked his room all over again for any sign of the hidden map. It was starting to get dark. This was going to take forever! He thought to himself, where else can I check! After a pause in moment thought, Merlin came up with an idea. It was desperate measures, and after all it is his personal duty to destiny to serve the once and future king and his prospects…he looked around the room capturing Arthur pushing his blond locks with his hand to the very end of his scalp in stress, he looked bored and frustrated, which from his own personal experience wasn't good. He turned around quickly, knowing that it was extremely risky, and whispered the soft words which flowed naturally like water to him.

"Pergamenum aenigmate, iam mihi exhibeatur" with that, a gold so bright that the sun could be ashamed of shone through his eyes, each little particle shimmering like a wave which crashed Onto the shore, gently yet wildly throughout the cornea and pupil. A high pitched hum came to his eyes harshly towards the doorway making him flinch at the unexpected sound, and for that the king to swiftly looked over to his manservant confused.

"Merlin what's wrong?" and with that Merlin twisted his head to Arthur and strained his neck to one side, to block out the humming.

"Oh nothing, just…just tired due to all of that map searching you made me do"

"Have you found the map yet?"

"No but I think I'm having a break through discovery"

"And what might that be?"

"That you're a dollop head, and a very big one at that, why cant we all just have a break for once, you know sleep till dawn, party all night….um…..sleep till dawn… yes that sounds like a good idea"

"Merlin"

"Yes"

"Shut up"

"Right should of expected that"

"Since when do I ever get a break, I'm the Camelot's prince, the next in line for the throne, we never get to take breaks unless its ordering idiots like you around" a small yet gynormous grin spread among his face "anyway since when was that phrase ever created"

"Since the day I met you, yet there were quite a few words like that which were made on that day" Arthur frowned and found an half eaten apple on his desk, he threw it at Merlin, straining his wrist in the process "OW!, what was that for?"

"For being a clot pole"

"Hey that's my word!" the humming pounded in his left ear which was closest to the door, he gave Arthur a stern yet amusing glare towards him and hastily walked towards the exit and into the humming sound.

**Pergamenum aenigmate, iam mihi exhibeatur-parchment of riddle, be shown to me at once**


	4. The Oaked Unkown

**Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter! sorry yet again due to this chapter being the shortest so far but I'm going to make it up to you by writing more next time! :)**

**Irene: just wanted to say thank you for your constructive advice and have tried to follow your advice in this chapter!, I'm not really on deviantart at the moment because I'm not sure what is, due to being completely new to this lol :')**

As Merlin closed the doors to Arthur's chambers, the humming vocal got louder; he looked sideways down the hallway to see which path he was supposed to be taking and took a right. Stepping down the stone staircase he made his way down to the court yard and began to ignore the busy chatter of people to make out which direction sounded the loudest when turning his head. Wagons creaked their way down to the stands stood full of fruit and vegetables, Camelot's guards armour clashed and pounded the ground every time the guard decided to move a singular part of his body and the merest sound of children, playing with each other and shouting encouraging banter as their soft yet harsh feet touched the earth. Merlin nudged himself with his shoulder and tried to concentrate more on where the sound was coming from, he walked forwards into the busy crowd and the painful rush of humming came into his right ear. Lifting his head from the slight surprise the kings stables came into focus. He jogged calmly towards it and straight to Arthur's horse where he first checked for his princes lined parchment, all of a sudden a very high pitched humming came to his left ear which caused him to groan out loud and force his left ear down with his shoulder. He looked in that direction and found a black, leathered rucksack resting just upon a bit of hay, slumped up against the wall. Merlin frowned in confusion and thought to himself "that's not Arthur's bag" he slowly walked towards the bag, looked in both directions in case someone sneaked up on him and unlaced the bag, displaying the well popular parchment lying just on top of a wooden box. He quickly slid the map into his inside pockets and instantly got attracted to the wooden, unhinged box which laid before him, the high pitched form faded away while a new voice raised to merlins ears.

"Perpetuas Silentio Veniam" the whisper over lapped continuously in a circle, forcing Merlin to come closer to the box, to make him feel the soft yet rugged oak of this square object, which came into more importance than a couple of seconds ago.

"HEY!" Merlin snapped out of his own-track of thought and quickly redone the lace of the bag, taking a step away from it, a 30 year old man came into focus with brown, mopped hair which swept his wrinkles away with no less than a flick of the neck.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?" Merlin sensed the anger in the green-eyed man and decided to not question him about the fact of him getting his hands on the princes map.

"Nothing, nothing I was just cleaning out the stables for prince Arthur"

"Oh, so you're the princes servant,…I've heard a lot about you, sniffing around other peoples business when there's no reason to meddle around in the first place"

"I was just cleaning out the stables"

"I'm sure you were, with your hands?, don't try to fool me boy!, I know your type. Steeling what you can in order to get good profit in life"

"Honestly I wasn't steeling"

"Then what do you call going into someone else's bag and taking whatever you want from it called?"

"I HAVEN'T TOOK ANYTHING WHICH BELONGS TO YOU. I SWEAR! CHECK ME IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME!" the conversation went silent in what Merlin thought was hours on end, the man gave daggered eyes to his opponent and stepped up more closely to Merlins face.

"Do you know what boy, if I find out your fibbing to me, then I'll string you up and hang you myself for the whole court to see" the tension raised up slightly and stopped. The man lifted his black leather bag in one simple swing and set off towards the market place. Merlin huffed in relief and agitation at the same time and decided to set off towards Arthur's chambers. He thought to himself "why did that labourer have Arthur's map in his bag? Why was he so protective over his property? And what and why was that box he had in his grasp?.

Merlin hopped up a couple of steps towards the princes chambers and thought over the whole situation, all Merlin knew for now was that whatever that man was up to, it was far from good on any level. He knocked, then entered through the door.

**Just to let you know** "**Perpetuas Silentio Veniam" means the ever lasting silence will come :)**


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